Indian Railways cancelled tender for 44 Vande Bharat trains

Indian railways has decided to cancel the tender for manufacturing 44 semi-high speed Vande Bharat Express trains. A fresh tender will be floated next week as per revised public procurement order to prioritise Make in India.

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The move comes after Chinese joint venture company CRRC Pioneer Electric (India) Private Limited emerged as the only foreign bidder for the global tender floated for manufacturing 44 rakes of Vande Bharat trains in July.

Indian Railways’ Integral Coach Factory, Chennai had floated a tender for manufacturing 44 rakes or train sets of semi-high speed Vande Bharat trains on July 10.

This comes at a time when India and China are involved in a tense border stand-off along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh.

The ambitious ‘Make in India’ project involves the manufacturing of 44 train sets comprising 16 coaches each for Vande Bharat.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had flagged off the maiden run of a Vande Bharat train on the New Delhi-Varanasi route on February 15, 2019.

The second such train service between New Delhi and Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Katra was flagged off by home minister Amit Shah on October 3, 2019.